Today’s question is…
How do you find a photographer?
How much should I pay for a photographer?
How do you get good pics of your costumes?
My first rule of thumb for getting photos of your costumes is to take your own. “Pics or it didn’t happen!” as the quote goes. Get a friend or a parent or somebody to snap a photo of your costume for you. They may not be professional quality, and probably not the amazing shot you had in mind, but you’ll always have one or two photos of your costume.
If you’re at a convention, hand your camera (or camera phone) to a friend and have them snap a few shots. If you’re there by yourself, and someone who perhaps looks nice takes a picture of you – ask them if they’d mind taking one of you with your camera, too. If you can’t get one at the con, then ask a parent or friend to take one of you at home – just stand somewhere with decent lighting and without a mess behind you, if you can help it! Step outside, if you can.
(I used to use the kitchen a lot. Not that great a backdrop, but at least I had a pic of my costume.)
If you can, try to find somewhere that would work well with your costume – at my parents house, we lived in the country so usually walking outside a few steps was a generally good background (better than the kitchen anyway – but I’m lazy). At a con, look for quieter areas, or just trying to move where you don’t have a crowd of people behind you. Try to avoid the harsh lighting of dealer’s rooms (overhead fluorescents…) and move somewhere with windows, or just better lighting overall. Hotels often have garden or nicely landscaped outdoor areas – take advantage of them (but don’t mess things up. Don’t climb on things and don’t step on flowers. Be respectful that you’re on someone else’s property).
Some conventions have professional photographers set up with backdrops. This a great option if you want a good, simple pro shot of your costume without the distraction of a convention hall background. Another option is to find see if there is a group photoshoot of the series you’re costuming from set up – often times you can hand your camera off to someone to take photos of the group for you.
To find group shoots, or if you’d rather have a full, personal photoshoot at a convention, start looking for places online where people are talking and making plans for the con. Here’s a few places I always check…
Facebook – search for events & groups.
Cosplay.com – has several dedicated forums to particular cons, and if it doesn’t, search the forums, there’s usually a thread on every convention somewhere.
Convention’s own forums – some of them have dedicated forums, so this is an obvious choice!
American Cosplay Paradise – they have a great system for conventions, if you’re a member, you can add yourself to an upcoming and see who else is coming, including photographers who are members.
Twitter/Tumblr/Etc – use or search tags for the con name.
(We had a great photoshoot with Eurobeat King at Dragoncon 2007; he had a lot of fun ideas for poses and we got a ton of pics!)
Once you’ve found a place where folks are planning shoots and costumes for the con, you can either look around for a photographer offering shoots, or ask.
Some photographers charge for their shoots – there’s nothing wrong with this. They are professional seeking to get paid for doing their job just like any other craftsman. If you don’t feel like you can afford a paid photographer, there are usually folks who will shoot for free as well.
Ask a photographer’s rates up front, and make sure you’ve got everything square. If you’re wanting the photographer to shoot a large group, or in a specific location, or any other requests, make sure the photographer knows in advance so they can plan and bring proper equipment.
(Chasing Photography and I wanted to do this particular photoshoot in this particular location at Dragoncon 2011 and planned ahead for it.)
Ask how you’re going to receive the photos & how long it will take. Will you get them via CD, flash drive, email, or will they be posted online? Be patient with the photographer if it takes a week or so to get the photos to you – sometimes they have 9to5 jobs, but if it’s been several weeks, sometimes they need a little nudge.
Ok let’s say you didn’t hire a photographer but you know lots – or at least, some – people took photos of you at the con. How do you go about finding them?
Firstly, did anyone give you a business card? Some photographers will give out their card with their website on it – I usually come home from Dragoncon with a nice stack to start looking through afterwards. It’s really helpful. If the photographer doesn’t have a card, but you think you’d like the shot they took, it helps for costumers to ALSO carry cards with contact info to give to folks. I always have some but always forget to hand them out.
If a photographer asks you to pose a certain way, don’t be afraid to try it – I’ve had some of my favourite photos come from photographers forcing me to think outside the box. BUT — if they’re asking you to pose in a way that makes you uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to say no. Or even if it’s just something that doesn’t make sense for the character – at one con I had a photographer ask me to hold my Amidala cape out like wings, to which I politely declined.
Don’t ever wander off somewhere alone with a photographer you don’t know, especially to a hotel room.
So where are places you can look for photos after a con, otherwise?
1. Flickr. Even though flickr’s new look is ungainly and doesn’t load very quickly, it’s still a great repository of con and event photos, and most people are good about tagging. Try different variations of tags – for example, dragoncon, “dragon con” and dragoncon2012. Flickr’s search also tends to give out after you’ve looked through several pages, so the trick I’ve learned is to go into their advanced search, use the same search terms, but they have options for “Day Taken” and “Day Posted” – so you can search for “dragoncon” photos ONLY posted on “Friday, August 26” for example.
2. Con forums/cosplay.com forums – people will usually start posting their own personal gallery links here, so be on the look out 🙂
3. Ask people to tag you on facebook. I really don’t particularly like facebook as a gallery, since so many photos are private and you’ll never see them unless a friend-of-a-friend tags you, but if some folks know you’re looking, they’ll be on the look out for your photos (at least, you can hope they are).
4. Google! Try different search terms for the con, and you can dig up some galleries that way.
5. Twitter/Tumblr/Pinterest. Search tags here, too!
If you find a photo of you online that you don’t like, just politely ask for them to take it down/make it private. All they can do is say no.
When saving someone else’s photo of you, name the file the photographer’s name or username so you can’t forget it and you can always credit. If a photographer asks you to not repost it (even with credit) respect their wishes, or have a civil conversation with them to come to some sort of agreement. Never sell prints of another photographer’s photos without their express permission. Cosplay photography is a two way street – it takes both the costumer and the photographer’s talent to take a great pic, so always give a photographer credit!